IL On the Scene - March 1

It was a marquee Friday night for Division I lacrosse as two of the sport's more prominent traditional rivalries dominated the evening's action.

The Princeton Tigers traveled to Baltimore where they took on long-time foe Johns Hopkins for the 83rd time in that series' history. About 330 miles due north, a fan favorite contest between the visiting Virginia Cavaliers and the host Syracuse Orange kicked off in the Carrier Dome about an hour later. While that rivalry goes back just 28 contests, the numbers are eerily even, and the product on the field is rarely disappointing.

Inside Lacrosse was at both of these big games, bringing you play-by-play action (along with a little local color), and wrapping up the day's events with some postgame analysis and reactions. Make sure to follow InsideLacrosse.com all weekend for more scores, stats, game blogs and analysis from the rest of this weekend's action.

Syracuse 9, Virginia 8 (OT)

Syracuse, NY – John Desko said it was just another Syracuse-Virginia lacrosse game. He was right. And he was oh so wrong.

The No. 16 Orange defeated the No. 6 Cavaliers 9-8 in overtime Friday night before a Carrier Dome crowd of 5,388. Syracuse (2-1) ended it when sophomore attackman Kevin Rice, who had taken only one shot the entire game, got open 10 yards to the right of UVA goalie Dan Marino and rifled a right-handed shot far-side high with 1 minute remaining in the first four-minute sudden-death.

“If I had to pick a spot on the field to shoot from it would be right there,” Rice said of his decision to let fly with a rare shot (he now has six total in three games). “Yeah, that’s my favorite spot, my sweet spot. I had time to set my feet. I knew it was going to
be as good a shot as we were going to get.”

There is nothing unusual about Syracuse defeating Virginia in overtime. Five of the last 26 games played between the fierce but friendly rivals have gone to extra sessions, with Syracuse winning four of them.

It gets better. Of the 26 meetings since the teams began facing each other annually starting in 1994 (they have played twice a year several times, meeting again in the NCAA Tournament), each has won 13 times. Virginia has scored 348 goals in those contests, Syracuse 345. The average score has been Virginia 13.4, Syracuse 13.3.

That’s about as close as it gets, although Virginia (4-1) has won eight of the last 11, Friday night’s Orange decision notwithstanding.

“It was nice to come out on top of one of these,” Desko said. “It was another (typical) Syracuse-Virginia lacrosse game, coming down to overtime early in the year. A lot of excitement . . . the ball went back and forth both ways with some fast breaks.”

True again. There were several description-defying sequences that have come to define this annual up-tempo affair, with bodies flying all over the place, the ball ricocheting off players as if the Dome was a giant pinball machine and unsettled situations galore. Those sequences are what fans from both teams enjoy the most about the rivalry and why it has become one of the season’s must-see games for years.

So Desko was right . . . with the exception of this one missing ingredient: The ball rarely went into the net despite all that action, all those chances and only average play by each goalie (Virginia’s Marino made only seven saves, and Syracuse’s Bobby Wardwell finished with nine, although he overcame a shaky first half and made some good ones down the stretch).

For the first time ever – that’s right ever – each team was held to single-digit scoring. That includes the 26 games in the current annual stretch – contests that were decided by such scores as 17-15 (1996) 22-21 (1997), 18-17 (1998) . . . you get the picture – as well has three previous meetings before the teams began meeting every season. So in that regard, Desko was dead wrong.

“Their defense played very well,” he said, “and I thought our defense was terrific.”

Terrific as in holding a Virginia offense that averaged 15.5 goals in its first four games to eight, only two over the last 33 minutes. It was only the second time in the current 26-game stretch in which UVA failed to light up SU’s defense for double digits (a 13-7 SU victory in 2001 was the other). Syracuse captain Brian Megill, a four-year starter at close defense, said the performance was sparked by a message defensive coordinator Lelan Rogers sent early in the week.

“He told us that good teams have good offenses because most defenses are afraid to go out and pressure, to go out and get on their hands,” Megill said. “We kind of took that to heart. We said we’re going to get after them, and we did. We took pride in the defense being aggressive, and I don’t think they were used to it.”

Virginia attackman Mark Cockerton, who scored two goals early on a man-up chance and then a garbage goal off a rebound out front but then was blanked by Megill, a linebacker-ish 6-foot-1 and 220 pounds, concurred.

“He’s probably the best defender I’ve ever played against,” Cockerton (5-10, 185) said. “He’s a lot bigger than I am, and he’s really tough to beat, especially when they have a guy sliding right behind him. This game basically showed us we have a lot of work to do, especially on the offensive side. Hopefully at the end of the season we’ll be at a better place than we are today.”

Virginia coach Dom Starsia echoed his star’s assessment, calling SU’s defense the most talented and athletic his team has faced to date. But he also joined Cockerton in hinting the 15.5-goal average during the team’s 4-0 start was misleading.

“You saw two offenses that showed some bright spots . . .,” he said, searching for diplomacy, “and things where guys need to continue to develop for us to be fighting at the end of the season. We’re going to have to pick it up on offense, and I’m sure John will probably say something similar.”

The difference is Desko knew his offense was limited, especially when Nicky Galasso went down with a season-ending knee injury. The Orange, held to single-digit goals vs. the Cavs only twice in the previous 25 meetings (1995 and 2007), went into a funk when Starsia went to a zone after one quarter and his team trailing 4-3. SU scored only five goals over the next 48 minutes, but thanks to the aggressive defense and Rice’s decision to uncork a rare shot, it prevailed.

Virginia had some legitimate excuses for its offensive lethargy. It was playing its fifth game of the young season and second in five days, while the Orange had all week to prepare. The game was in the Dome. And SU, with an ugly home loss to Albany to open the season, needed a quality victory desperately. Starsia, though, was buying none of it.

“I thought we needed to move more,” he said. “It just seemed we were one step slower tonight.”

Not slow enough to prevent the great end-to-end action typical of this great rivalry, but slow enough to keep the ball out of the cage. And in this series, that is a rarity indeed.

Note: The victory may have been costly for Syracuse. Sophomore close defender Brandon Mullins, a blossoming star, went down hard on his knee when he missed a check on Virginia start midfielder Chris LaPierre – himself back from a three-game absence due to a knee injury – with five minutes remaining in regulation. Mullins stayed on the field for several minutes in obvious pain and had to be helped off gingerly. “Our thoughts are with him right now,” Desko said. “We’ll see after some X-rays. I didn’t like the way he hit the ground. That was scary.”

— Dave Rahme

Princeton 11, Johns Hopkins 8

Hopkins coach Dave Pietramala said the focus for his defense all week heading into their match-up with Princeton was to prepare to defend the known commodities. All-America Tommy Schreiber is as versatile and dangerous of a middie you could find. Jeff Froccaro plays with tenacity, confidence and a scorer's fearlessness. Mike MacDonald is a lethal and crafty finisher.

So seeing the final Princeton stat line – 11 goals, of which MacDonald had two, Schreiber had three, and Froccaro had three and an assist – it's easy to see the Jays missed their mark.

“It's a good team we played,” Pietramala said after the game. “Their first six offensive guys are very slick."

But poor team defense was not all the inhibited the Jays today, and make no mistake, Princeton won this game just as much or more than the Jays lost it.

“I thought we played with poise, which was critical for us to gain and keep possession of the ball,” said Princeton coach Chris Bates after the game. “...For a young team, I was really impressed. I'm proud of these guys. I thought they rose to the challenge in a big game.”

The Tigers didn't just rise to the challenge, they came out swinging, scoring the first goal of the game just 1:03 into the first, when Kip Orban hit Jeff Froccaro for the early 1-0 lead. Back-and-forth scoring ensued, with each team building and then losing a two-goal lead before the game was knotted at seven about midway through the third. From their, Princeton outscored Hopkins 4-1. Chris White's goal with 5:40 left to make it 11-8 sealed the victory for the visitors in this series where the home team hasn't won since 2004* (*there have been a few neutral site games in that stretch).

“That kind of confidence for Chris to come down when we're up two, that's a back-breaking goal,” Bates said. “I give Chris a lot of credit.”

While White's confidence may have come from his senior experience, the entire Princeton team exuded a confidence many doubted due to the massive graduation last year of veteran leaders. But Bates cited the key roles of elder statesmen like Froccaro and Schreiber, who help settle the team and play with faith in their younger counterparts. Still, the end result was far from a sure thing for Bates.

“I would say I'm pleasantly surprised honestly,” Bates said of the outcome, honestly assessing the task in front of his young, somewhat unproven team tonight. “We played 60 minutes, and Hopkins is a heck of a team...I thought we stepped up on both ends of the field and managed the game well.”

The same could not be said for the Jays, who squandered an impressive face-off effort by senior Mike Poppleton (15-22, 8 GB) by turning it over 15 teams and generally looking out of sorts on both ends of the field.

“I thought we were poor at fundamentals,” Pietramala said, grouping the bad defensive play, along with some sloppy clearing and ball handling as evidence. “We didn't make plays when we needed to make plays. If you want to really simplify things, they did, we didn't.”

A perfect example came at the end of regulation. Down by three, the Jays needed one goal to get going. Coach Bob Benson drew up a play: they snuck Rex Sanders out of the box onto the field, the ball moved to the right spots and the right slide was drawn, but then the pass to the open may was carelessly thrown out of bounds. “We didn't execute during those opportunities,” Pietramala said.

The Jays struggled shooting as well, particularly early, when they more than tripled-up Princeton in the first quarter (17-5 shots), but walked away tied at three after many Hopkins shots either flew wide or became easy saves for Princeton's goalie Matt O'Connor, allowing the freshman to build confidence early.

“Basically the defense was giving me shots I kind of wanted to see,” O'Connor said after the game. “...I was fortunate enough to make some stops.”

The two squads leave this game with very different feelings. The largely unproven Princeton goes from an unconvincing win against Hofstra to knocking off a Top-5 opponent before they head home for the opener against Villanova. The win should breed confidence in a young team.

“Hats off to Princeton, they did a good job,” Pietramala said. “...That's a dangerous team that's going to beat some people.”

As for Hopkins, they have a short week to work before an in-state match-up with Mount St. Mary's back at Homewood on Tuesday evening. After fairly easy wins against Sienna (15-6), Towson (12-6) and Michigan (17-8) to start the season, traditional rival Princeton provided a sobering inventory of some of Hopkins' areas of improvement.

“We felt this was going to be a good measuring stick with us, and we're going to see from the film what we need to work on,” said standout defenseman Tucker Durkin. “...More than anything I'm going to remember this feeling and work on it as motivation going forward.”

“The best thing we can do is move forward. That's the best thing we can do is get right back on the horse,” Pietramala said, looking ahead at contests with the Mount and UMBC the following Saturday. “...What you are as a man you figure out through your disappointments.”